BlackBerry 8800 Announced by RIM

Research In Motion has announced today its newest addition to the BlackBerry line-up, the 8800. This is a device that revolutionizes the way RIM thinks about the BlackBerries and this out of the box thinking is easily shown by the spec sheet the 8800 has.

If you were upset your old BlackBerrys didn't have some kind of memory expansion card slot, you can rest at ease when you're talking about the 8800 because, if you're going to get your hands on it, I'm sure the first thing you'll notice and give a round to applause to RIM for it will be the microSD memory expansion card slot.

The other pleasant surprise the guys from RIM have prepared for their customers is a media player, an application lots of you missed in the predecessors of the 8800.

This is a quad-band GSM/EDGE handset working on 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz networks, coming with an integrated GPS chipset that will let you use the BlackBerry maps. It also features a Pearl-like trackball, a thing that will make navigating through this BlackBerry menu a lot easier compared to the older models.

The spec sheet continues with the mentioning of the TFT LCD QVGA display working at a 320x240 resolution, the 64 MB of built-in memory, the full QWERTY keyboard, the tethered modem capability letting you use this smartphone as a wireless modem for your laptop or your personal computer, the Voice Activated Dialing, the compatibility with the most popular PIM softwares, the built-in speakerphone and the support for Triple DES, with a bonus AES Encryption when integrated with BlackBerry Enterprise Server (for the security maniacs out there).

The BlackBerry 8800 measures 114 x 66 x 14 mm (4.49 x 2.60 x 0.55 in), weighs 135 grams (4.73 oz), has a talk time of 5 hours, a stand by of 22 days and it will be available on the AT&T/Cingular wireless carrier in US later this month for a retail price not yet known.